Conventional wisdom says it’s difficult to translate a joke. British comedian Eddie Izzard disagrees. With his Force Majeure tour, he has been performing his stand-up comedy routine in English, French and German and he plans to add Spanish, Russian, and Arabic to the mix before it’s al...

No matter what, learning a foreign language takes some effort. But some languages are easier than others. Which languages are the hardest for English speakers to get a grip on? This infographic, based on information provided by the Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of State, might have ...

Microsoft & Skype intend to launch a real time language translator service this year according to an article by the BBC. Satya Nadella, Skype’s chief executive plans to introduce a test version for Windows 8 in the run up to 2015. Due to increasing competition in the the VOIP market from th...

Awkward English translations are exceedingly common in Korea. So common, in fact, that there is even a word to describe them: Konglish. “Konglish” translations of Korean restaurant menus are often especially heinous. Kim Seong-kon, a professor of English at Seoul National University, h...

Rosie the pit bull had a rough start in life. First of all, she was born deaf. She was also born a pit bull, a breed of dog that all too often gets poor treatment and a bad rap in the United States. At three years old, she ended up homeless at the Central Nebraska […]...

Quechua is the most widely spoken group of indigenous languages in South America. However, in a world where Spanish predominates, it is extremely vulnerable. Quechua is a group of closely related languages and dialects spoken by 8 to 10 million people in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It was the languag...

Sometimes, even the most seemingly innocent translations can end up causing controversy. For example, in Richmond, British Columbia, a Crest ad targeted at Chinese-speaking residents caused a minor uproar last month. The ad features a Chinese bride posed on a mouthwash-blue background next to ...

It’s the end of an era as London’s first church built specifically for deaf worshipers will be closing soon, the BBC reports. St Saviour’s Church opened for services on Oxford street in 1873. 50 years later, it relocated to Acton. According to the London Deaf Church website, the plac...

Slowly but surely, bits of English are creeping into Chinese, Roman alphabet and all. English words and acronyms like Wifi, GDP and NBA now appear untranslated in all sorts of contexts, from spoken conversations to emails to news stories. But not everyone is pleased with this trend, which is known a...